This report is from around a month ago. I’m halfway through a masters degree and they’re expecting me to read, and write essays and s**t, so my quiet times at work have been spent on that. The original plan for this trip was Riyadh for Six Flags Qiddiya, after a stopover in Doha, but the 3 days I had available to hit the park ended up being the exact three days that the park decided (at a stupidly late point) to not be open. Luckily, I was prepared for shenanigans and had booked everything to be easily changeable/refundable, so I pushed the whole thing back to the first week of my Easter Holiday, which starts next Friday. Yeah.
Anyway, I was left with pretty much no time to plan a different trip, but realised that there was quite a bit of new stuff in the UAE since my last visit 8 years prior, and found a surprisingly cheap flight to Abu Dhabi considering it was Chinese New Year. Last time, I’d stayed in the city centre and headed out to Ferrari World for the day, but there are two new parks since then, and I’d “done” Abu Dhabi the last time, so I just stayed on YAAAAAAAAAS Island, within walking distance to at least a couple of the parks, getting to the hotel (more like serviced apartments) quite late.
Day 1 – SeaWorld
The hotel was at the back of SeaWorld, so I just walked around in the morning, taking a look at Manta and arriving a bit before opening.
I’d bought a 3-park ticket and completed their somewhat faffy facial recognition thing online, so got in quickly. It wasn’t too busy at that point, and despite the cred anxiety, I figured that it would be best to head to the big tank first while it was quiet.
Yeah, it’s amazing. In terms of what’s in it, there’s not really anything I haven’t seen before – most big aquaria have pretty much the same species – but there was a lot and the presentation was excellent, especially the multiple viewing areas across different levels. The biggest tank is now at Chimelong Spaceship, but it’s literally just a huge featureless pool for orcas, so this one is far more impressive.
Cred time, starting with the family thing in the only proper rides area. The area’s cute, but it’s just kiddy rides. The coaster was walk-on and was decent enough. What you see is what you get basically.
Manta was surprisingly difficult to find since the entrance is on a lower level. The first time, I ended up taking an unnecessarily long route around/through the dolphin area, but figured out the short cuts later.
It was pretty much walk-on for the whole day, with no more than a 1 train wait or so apart from hitting a school trip group at one point. Operations were piss-poor though; I’d hate to see it on a busy day. Anyway, the coaster is excellent. I don’t think I’d really followed the construction of this, so assumed it was more “family” than it is until I saw it on the walk to the park. The layout is really well-paced, the inversions are excellent, the launches are punchy and there’s lots of airtime. This doesn’t get the love it deserves, and I’m just going to say it: it’s currently the best coaster in the UAE.
After a few rides, I headed back up to the dolphin area (didn’t bother with any shows) and a walkthrough aviary, which are both very well presented.
The penguin area was also really impressive, probably the best I’ve seen. Most seem to have fairly shallow pools, but this one was ridiculously deep. Maybe it’s a bit too showy? Do penguins dive that deep when they’re getting fed at the surface? The walrus pools didn’t seem to have quite the same level of attention, but maybe that’s comparing it unfairly against other areas of this park rather than enclosures at other places; it was probably better than most I’ve seen.
There are also seals, sealions, sea otters, all presented really well with above and underwater viewing areas.
I was popping back and to for Manta rerides, and also headed back into the huge tank area (can’t remember or be arsed to check the name of it), but that was getting a lot busier in the afternoon, with some long queues of people all taking the same picture, and wasn’t as pleasant to spend time in, so I’d definitely recommend hitting that area up at park opening. I also caught some show in the main hub. It was very cool, but also very long and, ultimately, is just looking at screens.
img]https://i.ibb.co/0pMwdpQ9/IMG-20260217-124857.jpg[/img]
And that was it really. I was very impressed with this place. As an aquarium, it’s up there with the very best I’ve seen, and craps all over the US parks (at least in terms of animal exhibits/theming), but this is very much an aquarium with a handful of rides whereas the US parks are going in the other direction. Manta is excellent, and from what I can tell, I think there’s more outside space available. There's another big ride here, a jacked-up simulator thing which looks very impressive, but was closed. This place is one of the best overall park experiences in the area, but another major ride could push this into possibly being the best.
It wasn’t too late when I got out, so I headed out for an “if there’s time” +1. Somehow, there’s always time…
Orange Hub
This was one of the ubiquitous shopping mall parks. There’s one cred listed on RCDB, but two more is-it-a-creds on Coaster-Count. I was happy to learn that on the day I was there (Tuesday?), there was an offer where all rides were only about a quid each. Excellent! Still got to get a card with 20 quid’s worth of credit though. Bollocks.
The proper coaster was an SPF Visa thing. Ugh. It was the first one I’d seen with the hamster wheel though, so that had to be ticked off.
It wasn’t quite as awful as I’d been expecting, but there’s no need to ever do it again. Obviously, I’ll get the creds, but I’ll choose the regular car. One of the is-it-a-creds was a zipline coaster (I’ve done one before and counted it), but powered/controlled by the rider. Hmmmmmmm.
Nah, I’ve ticked it off on Coaster-Count, but not included it in my personal count. The non-powered one I'd done felt coastery, this didn't. The other is-it-a-cred was part of a funhouse thing, which was the only semi-busy attraction in the whole place. No, just absolutely not. I didn’t even bother with it just to tick off the Coaster-Count box. It’s a pole on a piece of track (like those ski lift things). It’s a piece of playground equipment. If you’ve ridden this and count it, don’t be so f**king ridiculous.
The staff here were super nice, and trying to get me to ride other stuff that I really didn’t want to. I ended up trying out one of these newer rotor-style rides. I’d seen loads of them in Turkey, but hadn’t tried one before. I’m pretty sure they’re made by SBF Visa as well. Yeah, one and done; not for me anymore.
I used up some of the card credit on a few games and headed out, got food in the mall, and got a Careem (like Uber) back to the hotel.
Anyway, I was left with pretty much no time to plan a different trip, but realised that there was quite a bit of new stuff in the UAE since my last visit 8 years prior, and found a surprisingly cheap flight to Abu Dhabi considering it was Chinese New Year. Last time, I’d stayed in the city centre and headed out to Ferrari World for the day, but there are two new parks since then, and I’d “done” Abu Dhabi the last time, so I just stayed on YAAAAAAAAAS Island, within walking distance to at least a couple of the parks, getting to the hotel (more like serviced apartments) quite late.
Day 1 – SeaWorld
The hotel was at the back of SeaWorld, so I just walked around in the morning, taking a look at Manta and arriving a bit before opening.
I’d bought a 3-park ticket and completed their somewhat faffy facial recognition thing online, so got in quickly. It wasn’t too busy at that point, and despite the cred anxiety, I figured that it would be best to head to the big tank first while it was quiet.
Yeah, it’s amazing. In terms of what’s in it, there’s not really anything I haven’t seen before – most big aquaria have pretty much the same species – but there was a lot and the presentation was excellent, especially the multiple viewing areas across different levels. The biggest tank is now at Chimelong Spaceship, but it’s literally just a huge featureless pool for orcas, so this one is far more impressive.
Cred time, starting with the family thing in the only proper rides area. The area’s cute, but it’s just kiddy rides. The coaster was walk-on and was decent enough. What you see is what you get basically.
Manta was surprisingly difficult to find since the entrance is on a lower level. The first time, I ended up taking an unnecessarily long route around/through the dolphin area, but figured out the short cuts later.
It was pretty much walk-on for the whole day, with no more than a 1 train wait or so apart from hitting a school trip group at one point. Operations were piss-poor though; I’d hate to see it on a busy day. Anyway, the coaster is excellent. I don’t think I’d really followed the construction of this, so assumed it was more “family” than it is until I saw it on the walk to the park. The layout is really well-paced, the inversions are excellent, the launches are punchy and there’s lots of airtime. This doesn’t get the love it deserves, and I’m just going to say it: it’s currently the best coaster in the UAE.
After a few rides, I headed back up to the dolphin area (didn’t bother with any shows) and a walkthrough aviary, which are both very well presented.
The penguin area was also really impressive, probably the best I’ve seen. Most seem to have fairly shallow pools, but this one was ridiculously deep. Maybe it’s a bit too showy? Do penguins dive that deep when they’re getting fed at the surface? The walrus pools didn’t seem to have quite the same level of attention, but maybe that’s comparing it unfairly against other areas of this park rather than enclosures at other places; it was probably better than most I’ve seen.
There are also seals, sealions, sea otters, all presented really well with above and underwater viewing areas.
I was popping back and to for Manta rerides, and also headed back into the huge tank area (can’t remember or be arsed to check the name of it), but that was getting a lot busier in the afternoon, with some long queues of people all taking the same picture, and wasn’t as pleasant to spend time in, so I’d definitely recommend hitting that area up at park opening. I also caught some show in the main hub. It was very cool, but also very long and, ultimately, is just looking at screens.
img]https://i.ibb.co/0pMwdpQ9/IMG-20260217-124857.jpg[/img]
And that was it really. I was very impressed with this place. As an aquarium, it’s up there with the very best I’ve seen, and craps all over the US parks (at least in terms of animal exhibits/theming), but this is very much an aquarium with a handful of rides whereas the US parks are going in the other direction. Manta is excellent, and from what I can tell, I think there’s more outside space available. There's another big ride here, a jacked-up simulator thing which looks very impressive, but was closed. This place is one of the best overall park experiences in the area, but another major ride could push this into possibly being the best.
It wasn’t too late when I got out, so I headed out for an “if there’s time” +1. Somehow, there’s always time…
Orange Hub
This was one of the ubiquitous shopping mall parks. There’s one cred listed on RCDB, but two more is-it-a-creds on Coaster-Count. I was happy to learn that on the day I was there (Tuesday?), there was an offer where all rides were only about a quid each. Excellent! Still got to get a card with 20 quid’s worth of credit though. Bollocks.
The proper coaster was an SPF Visa thing. Ugh. It was the first one I’d seen with the hamster wheel though, so that had to be ticked off.
It wasn’t quite as awful as I’d been expecting, but there’s no need to ever do it again. Obviously, I’ll get the creds, but I’ll choose the regular car. One of the is-it-a-creds was a zipline coaster (I’ve done one before and counted it), but powered/controlled by the rider. Hmmmmmmm.
Nah, I’ve ticked it off on Coaster-Count, but not included it in my personal count. The non-powered one I'd done felt coastery, this didn't. The other is-it-a-cred was part of a funhouse thing, which was the only semi-busy attraction in the whole place. No, just absolutely not. I didn’t even bother with it just to tick off the Coaster-Count box. It’s a pole on a piece of track (like those ski lift things). It’s a piece of playground equipment. If you’ve ridden this and count it, don’t be so f**king ridiculous.
The staff here were super nice, and trying to get me to ride other stuff that I really didn’t want to. I ended up trying out one of these newer rotor-style rides. I’d seen loads of them in Turkey, but hadn’t tried one before. I’m pretty sure they’re made by SBF Visa as well. Yeah, one and done; not for me anymore.
I used up some of the card credit on a few games and headed out, got food in the mall, and got a Careem (like Uber) back to the hotel.